Design and implementation of a compact Double
2020 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting | 978-1-7281-6670-4/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IEEECONF35879.2020.9329565
Ridged Horn Antenna for Ultra-Wide band
Microwave Imaging
Stefania Diana, Chiara Ciampalini
Free Space S.R.L.
Pisa, Italy
stefania.diana(chiara.ciampalini)@free-space.it
Abstract—Microwave Imaging (MWI) is an emerging and non-
invasive technique that offers a promising alternative method of
breast screening. A new Double Ridged Horn (DRH) antenna to
be used in an MWI system for the detection of breast cancer is
presented. The developed DRH antenna is smaller than 30% of the
traditional DRH antennas and has good performances suitable for
MWI system.
Keywords—Microwave Imaging; Breast cancer; Double Ridged
Horn.
I. INTRODUCTION
Breast cancer is one of the main cancers diagnosed in women
and it has the highest incidence in the world [1]. Microwave
imaging (MWI) technique is very suitable for breast screening
as it is based on the use of non-ionizing radiation, does not
involve any crushing of the breast making it more comfortable
than other techniques and has a low economic and
computational cost [2]. This technique involves illuminating the
breast with short-time, low-power pulses of microwave energy
using a transmitting antenna. The signals reflected by the breast
are collected in the same or different antenna positions and are
processed to create a three-dimensional image indicating the
presence and location of cancers [3]. A key element in the design
of MWI systems regards the choice of the type of antenna that
illuminates tissues. Different kinds of antenna have been used in
recent years: dipole and monopole antennas, Vivaldi antennas,
horn antennas and bow tie [4]. The choice of the type of antenna
is mainly determined by some constraints: a wide operating
bandwidth and unidirectional radiation are the two major
requirements for MWI system in order to obtain high resolution
images and eliminate surrounding environment’s effects [5].
However, this application requires good impedance matching,
small antenna’s sizes, minimum signal distortion, radiation
pattern and gain stable in frequency.
The aim of this work is to design and implement a
miniaturized transmitting antenna to be inserted in an MWI
system for the detection of breast cancer. The miniaturized
antenna must be smaller than traditional and commercially
available DRH antennas [6], [7], since these items are too large
for a proper integration in the considered MWI system. The
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Guido Nenna2, Danilo Brizi12, Agostino Monorchio12
1
Dept. of Information Eng., University of Pisa, Italy
2
RaSS National Laboratory, CNIT, Pisa, Italy
guido.nenna@cnit.it, danilo.brizi@ing.unip.it,
agostino.monorchio@unipi.it
presented antenna has been designed and fabricated, so the
simulated and measured antenna parameters are shown.
II. DOUBLE RIDGED ANTENNA DESIGN
The antenna design (Fig. 1) is realized by modifying the
structure of a traditional Double Ridged Horn in shape and size.
Especially, the elimination of the flares along the H-plane has
allowed a reduction of the lower limit of the frequency band
ensuring a very wide band, from 1 to 9 GHz. This bandwidth is
the right compromise between a good penetration depth of
biological tissues and a good spatial resolution. It has been
shown that the MWI for breast cancer reaches a limit resolution
of λ / 4 [8]. To model the feeding section, a 50 Ω SMA input
connector is considered. The inner conductor (electric field
probe) of the coaxial line is fed through a hole in the top ridge
and is connected to the bottom ridge forming a short circuit [9],
[10]. This allows an improvement of the electrical contact and
the impedance matching, in addition to the suppression of
higher-order modes. The cavity structure is redesigned
following the studies in [11]. The size and the shape of the
pyramidal cavity of the waveguide are fundamental for a low
VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio) and for a radiation
pattern suitable for the required application. Also, the
exponential profile offers good matching between the
impedance of the waveguide section and the free space. Adding
a linear part superimposed to the exponential one improves the
VSWR at low frequencies and does not affect the remaining
frequency band. The linear part of the profile starts at the feeding
point while the exponential part starts at the end of the box, as
in [12].
The exponential profile of the ridges for the ridge section is
given in (1):
S(t)=aebt ()
in which 0 ≤ t ≤ L and b is calculated as in (2):
b=(1/L) *ln(z(L)/z (0)) ()
L is the axial length of the antenna, z the distance from the axis
of symmetry, t is the exponential length of the profile of the
ridge, where the start point corresponds to the end of the linear
133 APS 2020

Fig. 1 Double Ridged Horn antenna design.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2 Simulated Radiation patterns of the new Double Ridged Horn
antenna: at 1 GHz (a) and 8 GHz (b).
Fig. 3 VSWR simulated in free space (blue color) and in presence of
biological tissue (red color) from 1 at 9 GHz.
Fig. 4 VSWR measured in free space (blue color) and in presence of
biological tissue (red color) from 1 at 9 GHz.
profile and the end point of t corresponds to the depth of the
horn antenna.
III. SIMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS
The far field antenna behavior in free space and in presence
of biological material is analyzed by FEKO software. The
simulated radiation patterns, shown in Fig. 2, confirms the good
134
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performance of the new Double Ridged Horn for MWI to breast
diagnosis: the half power beam is able to uniformly illuminate
the breast over the entire frequency band.
Furthermore, FEKO simulation shows a VSWR less than 3
over the entire band both in free space conditions and in the
presence of biological tissue (Fig. 3). An antenna prototype is
fabricated and tested to validate the design. According to the
simulations, the results of the VSWR measurement obtained
through a vector network analyzer, Fig. 4, confirm that the
antenna has a good matching (VSWR < 2.3) even if biological
material is present in the Fresnel zone. At high frequencies the
measurements of the presented antenna show a greater
matching than simulations, likely due to the positioning and
modelling of the antenna feed point in the simulation.
IV. CONCLUSION
A novel Double Ridged Horn antenna for MWI to detect
breast cancer is presented. It has dimensions less than 30% of
the traditional DRH antenna in [6] and shows a good impedance
matching with a VSWR less than about 2.3 all over the
bandwidth. Performances of the antenna such as compact size,
directional radiation pattern, low VSWR make this new Double
Ridged Horn the perfect candidate to be inserted inside the
considered MWI system to detect breast cancer.
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